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Consultants need to be more available to supervise emergency medical admissions to improve the care of acutely sick patients, recommends a report.

A study by the charity the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) shows that a quarter of patients who were admitted to intensive care units in England and Wales in one month in 2003 died. Nearly half of these patients received care that was judged to be less …